Monday, 23 August 2010

I can't believe it!

I was reminded this week that I am merely human. Read that as tendency to weakness and poor discipline. Neither am I above the laws of cause and effect!

Let me explain....I have been on holiday for a week with my family to the south coast of England. We had a lovely time. We stayed in a converted barn on an ex-dairy farm and spent our days reading, walking, visiting various places of interest and errr.....eating!

I had made the conscious decision that I would give my body a rest from training whilst on holiday to let all those little tweaks, sprains and bruises heal. I had been suffering from some lower back pain for about 3 weeks before going away and my back is much better and most of my bruises have disappeared.

Unfortunately my lack of training was also accompanied by a relaxation in the control of eating department and I have discovered on my return, during a Sunday morning post holiday weigh-in, that I have gained 5 pounds. Let me repeat that..... 5 pounds. In one week!

I cannot believe it. When I was young I was the sort of person that could eat anything I liked and not put a pound on. Clearly that is not true now! Like I said earlier, I am not above the laws of cause and effect - eat a lot = get fat. FIVE POUNDS!!! I am sooo ashamed. Even when we went to Cyprus in April for 2 weeks on full-board with food laid out in an endless buffet I only gained half a pound. So how the hell did I gain 5 whole pounds in a week?

I have been walking around the house ever since muttering that the scales must be wrong but I know they are not. I have the kind of weighing scales that not only weigh you but tell you your body fat percentage, the weight of your body fat, your BMI and your body water percentage. My body fat percentage has gone up by 4.4%. My BMI is still in the normal range at 22.8 but I have an additional 5 pounds of lard invading my body, yuk! - I hate it.

I have now been well and truly shocked out of my complacency and have already commenced dieting. In fact, I decided to get on the scales again this morning (just to check this wasn't all a bad dream, which it wasn't) and I have already lost 1 pound. I am hopeful that by the end of next week I will be back to normal!

Training has already re-commenced, I returned to kodudo last night, and I have a karate class in 1 hours time. My husband and I also did some two-man stuff this morning and then we spent about 2 hours digging in the garden. I intend to return to normal diet and exercise routines with immediate effect!

Hi Sue, this happens to all of us. Life is about balance and sometimes you need to let your body dictate what it wants to do. Enjoying good food is one of life's great pleasures. I usually come back from holidays at least 10 lbs. over, and it takes a few months to shed it, but that's ok.

Ariel, I definitely threw myself into karate last night - I ache like mad this morning!

Sandman, If only...

Matt, 10 pounds? I wouldn't have thought that was possibly in such a short space of time but then everyone was telling me their 'fat' stories at karate last night and I realised that it's quite common!

I'm sure some of that 5lbs is probably water (we do tend to retain more when we're more sedantary for a while, especially if we're generally active). It's scary to see just how easily the scales can sneak up though. What you have to remember is that your reaction to it is what's most important. People have 2 choices - they can chose to throw in the towel and just carry on scoffing because clearly all is lost....or they can start to watch what they eat again and the extra pounds (put on with some well deserved R&R remember) will melt off as quickly as they've come. Clearly you're chosing the latter - and that's the key to a living a healthy life (whilst allowing yourself to induldge now and then).

Bob, keith, I admit I'm not exactly fat with a BMI of 22.8. The shock for me was gaining so much weight in such a short space of time - I think it just reminds me that I'm getting older and my body can no longer cope with being abused!